As a result of their excellent tear strength, tensile strength, flex life, abrasion resistance, and broad useful end-use temperature range, thermoplastic polyetherester elastomers are used in a wide range of applications. For many applications, including automotive applications in particular, articles made from polyetherester elastomers can be subjected to operating temperatures that can range from about −40° C. to about 150° C. At low temperatures, the limiting factor of performance of polyetherester elastomers is typically embrittlement or loss of impact strength, while at high temperatures (such as those experienced in under the hood automotive applications), polyetherester elastomers can lose mechanical strength (for example, loss in tensile strength may be exhibited at elevated temperatures).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,599,625 discloses a polyetherester elastomer comprising about 90-about 60 weight percent polytrimethylene ether ester soft segments and about 10-about 40 weight percent trimethylene ester hard segments and their use in fibers and other shaped articles. The polymers are stated to provide an improvement in properties over those containing other glycols. U.S. Pat. No. 6,562,457 discloses a polyetherester elastomer comprising about 90-about 60 weight percent polytrimethylene ether ester soft segments and about 10-about 40 weight percent tetramethylene ester hard segments.
It would be desirable to obtain a thermoplastic polyetherester elastomer derived from poly(trimethylene ether) ester soft segments having improved high and low temperature physical properties.